Growing up, Shannon Macdonald-McLeod didn’t pay much attention to the port wine stain birthmark on the right side of her face.
In fact, the Brora youngster felt quite confident in herself.
Her mum would say that she looked different to the other children but, inside, she was just the same.
But then Shannon, now 30, hit her teenage years – and everything changed.
“We had to travel to a different school which had new people,” she recalled.
“I started noticing stares and you’d get the odd comment. it started to affect me.
“I’d be asked: ‘What’s that on your face, were you burnt?’
“One person insulted me saying they could ‘slap my face to match the other side and make it just as red.’
“It took my confidence away, I had none as a teenager at all.”
Attacked by a customer
At 13, Shannon started working at a local fish and chip shop – but felt she had to hide in the back where customers couldn’t see her.
“I didn’t know how people would take to me,” she said.
“We got a lot of tourists and I thought if I hid in the back, no-one would see me.
Later, she moved to another job at a bakery – and found her fears about facing the public weren’t unfounded.
She started telling me she could get rid of my birthmark by prayer.”
She said: “I was made to go out to the front which did help with my confidence, but it was still nerve-wracking.
“There was one incident where I was verbally attacked by a lady who came in.
“She started telling me she could get rid of my birthmark by prayer.
“No one should have to go through that.”
‘I tried to lighten my skin – but now I embrace it’
In her early 20s, Shannon took the decision to try and lighten her birthmark with laser treatment.
But she found her skin didn’t react well to the procedure – forcing her to change her outlook.
She said: “It was a game changer for me.
“I had to work on myself and stop worrying about the opinions of other people.
“You learn to kind of block out the stares.”
Shannon now works in an optician and has started campaigning for a visible differences charity.
“I thought it was time that I spoke up and told my story to help people,” she said.
“When I saw Changing Faces, I thought that was my opportunity.”
‘Charity gave me my confidence back’
Shannon added: “You speak to people and hear their side of the story, how they cope with things – throughout my life I’d only met one or two.
“It’s nice to have people who are like you, who’ve had similar experiences, they know what it’s like and they’ll listen to you.
“I do have days where I struggle, but most of the time I feel pretty confident.
“If you’re having a bad day, you will notice the stares.
“But if you’re in a frame of mind of ‘I’m not going to notice it or worry’, you start getting confidence again.”
For more information on the charity, visit changingfaces.org.uk or call its support line on 0300 012 0275.
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